In today’s mobile-driven marketplace, and with the rise of the Millennial “always on” consumer, having an app complement a retailer’s marketing strategy has become table stakes. Apps have evolved from simply being an extension of the digital ecosystem to leading the way for brand innovation, campaign awareness, and deeper loyalty engagement.

Never before has a brand had the opportunity to be part of such a personal customer connection—your customers’ mobile device is more than just a communication channel; it’s their hub to connect to all things, all people, and interact with your brand in more personal ways than ever before. The challenge this brings is for retailers to truly understand how users want to connect with their brand, and to develop features that enable those interactions in innovative, creative, relevant, and simple ways. The opportunity is to retain top-of-mind awareness for your brand, create habit-forming engagements, and obtain a higher reach of brand advocacy, especially when a formal loyalty program exists for your brand. Surprisingly, Bond Brand Loyalty’s 2016 Loyalty Report shows that almost 50% of consumers aren’t even aware if the loyalty program they engage with has an app, which is a lost opportunity for many retailers.

We have been hearing this phrase uttered every year for at least the last five years and yet, somehow, we are still not prepared. We are barely scratching the surface of what is possible with mobile and are expecting big things, which are not going to happen by themselves.

We are aware of the consumers’ love affair with their mobile devices. According to Pew Research Center:

64% of American adults now own a smartphone of some kind.

44% have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls, text messages or other updates during the night.

29% of owners describe their mobile phone as “something they can’t imagine living without.”

Also, quite importantly for marketers, consumers use their mobile phones while they are shopping.

Smartphones have given consumers instant access to resources and apps that compare prices, offer customer reviews or even enable instant feedback from their networks all while standing in the retail environment. Now, mobile payment solutions are making it faster and easier to convert these browsing shoppers and showroomers into purchasers.

While making mobile payments is still in its infancy, the release of Apple Pay is really driving mainstream adoption – something other solutions, Google Wallet for instance, seem to have failed at even after being in market for a number of years. Leave it to Apple to make it the norm.

Consumers and marketers are experiencing a rapid transformational change as the mobile payments industry takes off in North America. With heavyweight Apple behind Apple Pay and equal brand goliath Google backing Android Pay, contactless NFC payments now have the platform-level support needed for mainstream user adoption. According to a report by Forrester Research, in 2015 27% of marketers and digital business executives plan to start using mobile wallets to engage with their customers.

This mobile payments revolution is accelerating the convergence of mobile payments with loyalty programs, creating new opportunities and challenges for marketers seeking to provide mobile loyalty solutions that increase customer retention and program engagement. A new study published by market research and consulting firm Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB) found that among mobile wallet users, 27% are very likely to switch to businesses that offer mobile payment capabilities and 18% would increase purchase frequency if mobile payment capabilities were present. More, the 2015 Loyalty Report found that 48% of loyalty program members would like to engage with loyalty programs through their mobile devices.

Now, that’s kind of a big deal. But, which mobile wallet is the platform of choice for consumers?